Monday, April 12, 2004

Welcome Home Put On Hold I teach at the high school on the army post in Baumholder, Germany.  It's not as famous as a place like Ramstein AFB, but that doesn't make the people who live and work there any less important.  Baumholder also happens to be the home base of thousands of soldiers currently in Iraq.  Many of those soldiers are also the parents of the students I see every day.  The one thing most of them have been looking forward to is seeing their parents return after being gone to Iraq for over a year.  I can't imagine the stress they must feel having their father or mother in a place where injury or death is a real possibility.  I honestly don't know how they cope with that and also not seeing that person they love so dearly for so long.  All around Baumholder "Welcome Home" banners have been up for the past few weeks in anticipation of the thousands of soldiers returning to their families and friends.  Many of my students were looking forward to the excused absences the school would allow for them to spend as much time as possible with their returning parents. Well, that's now all been put on hold.  With the continued uprisings in Iraq, Rumsfeld is thinking that the best people to have in Iraq would be the most experienced, and many of the ones who have been there the longest are from Baumholder.  Now while I can't fault that logic, I also wish he could come to Baumholder and see these kids, these wives, this community that so desperately wants those soldiers in Iraq to come home safely.  I don't know if that would change his mind any, but maybe he would think these families have been through enough.  Today's issue of Stars and Stripes has an article talking about Baumholder and the families of the 1st Armored Division stationed here.  It begins: Extension talk hits 1st AD families hard By Rick Scavetta, Stars and Stripes European edition, Sunday, April 11, 2004 BAUMHOLDER, Germany — In this close-knit community, where many of the 1st Armored Division’s families live, spouses and children are coping in different ways with the probability that “Old Ironsides” may remain in Iraq for three or four more months. While the Pentagon has not confirmed whether the division will be kept over its planned 365-day tour, defense officials told The Washington Post that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld halted troop movements and gave U.S. commanders five days to sort out which units are needed to contain the violence in Iraq. V Corps, the division’s higher headquarters in Germany, has no official word of an extension, said Lt. Col. Kevin Gainer, a V Corps spokesman. Meanwhile, soldiers’ families were told Thursday to expect their loved ones to remain in Iraq for up to four more months. (Read the rest of the article) So it's not set in stone, but already some of the "Welcome Home" banners have started to come down and even some of the soldiers who have already returned to Baumholder are facing the real possibility of having to go back to Iraq. Related links: Baumholder, Germany - Home of Champions An overview of Baumholder and its history 9:32:10 PM     |

© Copyright 2005 Alex L. Mauldin.